Welcome!

Let me share a short story about how I became an Actor.

I grew up, in a small country town in upstate New York, listening to sixties rock n’ roll music, and I progressed being a radio jock at eighteen. Yeah, I worked at every radio station as a new college student. After four years, accomplishing the highest level awards, in directing a music video and designing a television stage set, I graduated in 1991 with a Bachelor’s degree in Television Production and a Minor in English at SUNY Plattsburgh.

I landed my first job that summer in Newport, RI,  and I thought I was going to make the beginnings of a film career: I soon learned to be a projectionist, quality control(QC), all about trailers, feature films, assisting with studio camera work, and being on-location. I was in my glory!  Working for Pike Productions, I learned how to develop my “camera-eye”.  It didn’t take me long before I headed west to Los Angeles to make it in the movies!

I swung open the door at the Post House in Hollywood and started work the next day. Oh yeah, I had beginner’s-luck; soon, after a lay-off, I was hired immediately at another post-house, Vidfilm.

Somewhere, within the two and half years, after watching embers fly across my front yard and the hills ablaze, houses crippling down from the El Nino Malibu mudslides, shaken & disturbed at 4:31am from the Northridge earthquake, and, finally, seeing OJ Simpson screaming down Route 5, I felt California was askew.

Around that time, too, I had proposed marriage on the beaches of San Luis Obispo, in northern California, and we decided having a family was now our time, and we headed back east to Rhode Island. So, another adventure ensued: crossing the country, dreaming of being with our families, starting a family, and starting out again, fresh. How exciting! A whole new outlook…

After almost eight years of marriage, two kids and a brand new-built house, we had the American Dream. Be careful what you wish for, as they say. 2003 was when my life opened-up from the inside-out. In one week, I lost everything. God was delivering.

When life has its moments, I just pray and ask for forgiveness. I changed: I would work for Him now, and not for “the man” anymore. All I needed to do was to stay positive and help make people around me smile. From that moment, I was on my first real journey.

During that time, I was having fun, in my kitchen, with my hobby creating my own chocolate recipes; dark and milk chocolate Yes, chocolate! It’s the only product, I know, that makes you smile from the moment you say “chocolate” to its lasting finish.

Immediately, I started my chocolate company, Patterson Family Chocolates, with $300. Within a month, I sold my first case; by the end of the year I had grossed close to $30,000 in receipts! Within twenty-two months, I created a unique business plan and business model, from the seat of my pants  in the chocolate/confectionery business, with a total gross earnings topping $150,000. I did it.

Running as an entrepreneur all over the southern shores of Rhode Island, Connecticut & Massachusetts, I began to create a philanthropic philosophy of “sharing first”. Even when I had my kids on the weekends, I entrusted them to “help other people first, and take care of yourself”. My belief, in myself, was growing stronger and more positive because I didn’t give up.

Patterson Family Chocolates was my saving grace, but a reality of making a living threatened further growth. I worked in the insurance field for about eighteen months, which was a boon; I was catching-up again. Soon, I became a sales manager and over achieved my annual numbers.  The thrill of achieving my sales goals was tops! But, my heart was not in insurance.

After some soul-searching, I realized I was drifting away from what I loved: the drumming of my heart-beat. How could I fire-up my internal engine and feel my life energized like before? I did chocolate-my first passion. I realized then that I had lived for what was rich in my life. What else can I love to do, above all else, and, possibly, make a living too?

It came to me, one weekend when my kids asked me to read, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, by Roald Dahl. We read until my throat was sore. How I love reading to them. After I put them to bed, it dawned on me that maybe I could… act? Why not? They loved it.

So, how do I become an actor? My answer come the next day on Monday Sept 28th, 2006.  I managed to see an open course, that night, at Perishable Theater in Providence for, “Headshots and Resume”. Perfect!

The following day, Tuesday night, I drove forty miles to Newport, and auditioned for Communicating Doors, by Alan Ackerborne. I had no idea, other than to have fun at the audition. I read the different sides, changed roles, and improvised. The next day, when I was looking for a “day job”, Tom Erb, the Director, called and asked if I wanted the lead part as Julian, the killer in the thriller-comedy play. He asked me again, while I was standing in my driveway speechless. After five seconds, I stammered, “Yes! Yes! Ok, I’ll take it, Tom. Please understand, I just realized, right now, that I just became an actor in 72 hours!”

After that phone call, I immediately, went to my computer, and looked up on MSN all of the actors/actresses. I read, and printed, their biographies and began studying how and what they did to be successful in this profession. After about about a hundred, of my favorites, I wrote down all the write-ups that had published autobiographies; these works, of theirs, would be my schooling. They would tell me, directly, their secrets, challenges, fun, and life as an actor.

After about an hour and half, I drove to the Cranston Library and began pulling books: Olivier, On Acting; Olivier, Confessions of an Actor; Stanislavski, My Life in Art; & An Actor Prepares; Marlon Brando, Brando on Brando, Marlene Dietrich, Marlene; Errol Flynn, My Wicked, Wicked Ways; Cary Grant, Conversations with Cary Grant, etc…….I immediately pulled On Acting, and fell inside the pages from 2:30 to 5:40 in one breath. When I looked up, at the time, and then back on page 80, I knew, oh man! I knew, I found my new passion. I knew then, as I do now, that I could do this with diligence and perseverance. Glory!

After studying over two dozed autobiographies and performing in over four plays, a year later, I applied to study at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City.

The day of my audition at the AADA, I went to HB Studio and audited Jim Boerlin’s Technique class from 10-12. After the class, I introduced my self and gave him a quick snapshot of my intentions as an actor. He smiled and said, “I hope you do well and I hope you don’t do well.” Huh? “What I mean is, I wish you the best at the AADA, but I hope you don’t get it because I would like you to be in my class.” WOW! I was thunderstruck. I couldn’t believe it. HB Studio had just accepted me, by Jim Boerlin’s hand, and I was headin’ off to the AADA. I was pumped! I said to myself walking on Madison Ave that afternoon, “New York, you’re mine!” Three weeks later, I received my acceptance letter.

Since then, I haven’t turned back! One of my favorite experiences was playing Nick in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, by Edward Albee, directed by William Steele, Director of Theatre at USM, at the Freeport Performing Arts Center in Maine. Bill and I have become great friends.

I, also, managed to get signed by an agent in Maine and another in Boston; I was cast my first principal role on a national SAG commercial, four principal non-union commercials, a principal role on an audio-book, all before I moved to New York.

I am now SAG, studying at HB Studio, and making a living as a principal working actor in New York City.

I’m making it!

Happy Thoughts,

Ed